Shedding Youth
by Ginny Rigby
Summary: Slash fic about Tonks and Hooch. R&R please!


The first time I saw you, I was a young girl, beginning to learn about the wonders of magic that had been hidden inside me. I was always fascinated about some of the things I could do: how I could change my appearance when someone made fun of me...there were so many things I could do, and I knew that it was because I was a witch. The thing that intrigued me most, though, was that I had within me the power to fly. You helped me down that path, and taught me everything I needed to know. You were my mentor, my favorite Professor at Hogwarts.  
  
Second year was a fresh beginning to my days at Hogwarts. I had almost forgotten about my days the year before in your counsel, learning slowly, carefully, the proper way to fly. I thought I had learned it all, and was sad to be leaving your counsel when I returned to my school when you approached me. "Nymphadora, when do you want our first lesson to be?" I needed to learn about proper broom care, how to handle the weather; things I could easily learn from a book, but desperately wanted to learn from you instead. You had an amazing hold on me, and I was drawn to your athletic grace and power.  
  
My third year at Hogwarts, I tried to desperately deny the overwhelming feelings I had for you hidden deep inside. I avoided your presence; you were the drug I could never get enough of yet I knew I needed your presence to survive. My parents taught me that a girl and a girl were friends only, but a girl and a boy was what I needed to focus on for my future. I was thirteen, barely old enough to understand, but I felt in advance the disapproval my parents would feel if they only knew my secret desire for the person they felt I most certainly did not belong with. I knew that I had to concentrate on finding a boyfriend, and not prolonging an innocent schoolgirl crush on a fantastic teacher.  
  
Somehow, I forgot. Between my third year at Hogwarts and the time I finished school and began Auror training, I did not think of you. However, the thing was, in all that time, I couldn't really keep myself from thinking of you. I kept those childhood memories of a young girl and her professor flying on a broomstick, free up in the air where no human, witch, wizard, or muggle could judge the feelings we had for each other.  
  
In the air, it was just us two, and no one else mattered. I could remember distinctly the feel of my arms around your waist as you guided the broomstick through the air, the wind rushing through my hair and my heartbeat racing in time with yours. I knew that if I was going to make it through Auror training that I had to put this unease to rest and figure out what it was that I really felt for you.  
  
So, I made my way toward Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You were just as I remembered, just as I had always pictured you in my dreams: strong, wild, unruly, passionate, Hooch. Cautiously, I made my way toward the Quidditch pitch. You were with a class, and your voice sounded through the air, like the beautiful notes of a concerto: "Stand to the right of your broomstick, hold out your right hand, and give the command: 'UP!'" The voices of your young students echoed your word, and it was then that I knew. I sat in the cool grass, reflecting upon those glorious first moments when I laid my eleven year old eyes upon you.  
  
I sat in the grass, waiting for your lesson to end, reflecting upon the years it took me to get to where I am now. When your lesson ended, I stood, and nervously walked to where you stood, collecting the brooms and bewitching them to follow you to the storage shed. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get my voice to work, when I softly whispered your name into the chill air of the dying summer. You stopped, and I wrestled up all the courage I had within me to speak louder. This time, you turned and looked at me. Our eyes met, and through unspoken words, I felt that we both knew. "Follow me," you said to me, and I knew that even if I had wanted to turn away, that I couldn't now. I followed you into that old worn down shed, the one that had been there when I first attended Hogwarts.  
  
It was in that shed that we confessed our love to each other, wordlessly, dancing a silent dance that only we could hear. It was in that shed that I finally knew who I was, and who you were, and how we were one. It was in that shed that I learned that no matter how hard I tried, that I could never fully appreciate how wonderful you are, and how wonderful we are together. I learned in that shed that I could never give you up, no matter the consequences. I knew that with you in my arms, and I in yours, that we were more powerful together than all the dark wizards and witches in the world. The beauty of us lasted only a few short moments, and then we parted again.  
  
I wonder when I'll see you again... 


End file.
